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Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0705291905300.4689@p34.internal.lan>
Date:	Tue, 29 May 2007 19:07:32 -0400 (EDT)
From:	Justin Piszcz <jpiszcz@...idpixels.com>
To:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Kernel 2.6.21.3 does not work with 8GB of RAM on Intel 965WH
 motherboards.

Short Description of Problem:
Linux 2.6.21.3 does not run properly with 8GB of ram on the Intel 965WH 
motherboard.

Long Description of Problem:
When I use 8GB of memory on my x86_64 system, CPU-bound processes are VERY
slow, up to 36x slower than usual.  My temporary fix is force Linux to only
use 4GB of memory, I am currently using mem=4096M.  I ran memtest86 and the
memory is fine, not a single error.  I tried the following to mem= 1024, 2048
4096 and blank "" to let the kernel use all 8GB of memory.  What is wrong
with the kernel and how come it cannot use 8GB of memory without slowing down
all CPU-related processes to a snail-like pace?  There is something horribly
wrong here.

Specifications:
Intel Motherboard: 965WH
Linux Kernel: 2.6.21.3
Distribution: Debian Testing x86_64
GCC: gcc version 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu

Tests:

1. append line = 1024M
top - 18:28:26 up 1 min,  4 users,  load average: 0.42, 0.17, 0.06
Tasks: 157 total,   1 running, 156 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.0%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni,100.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027016k total,   964288k used,    62728k free,     1232k buffers
Swap: 16787768k total,        0k used, 16787768k free,   105168k cached
---> STATUS: No problems, box is fine, no lag, etc..

2. append line = 2048M
top - 18:34:23 up 2 min,  2 users,  load average: 0.14, 0.14, 0.05
Tasks: 147 total,   1 running, 146 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  1.7%us,  1.2%sy,  0.4%ni, 95.2%id,  1.5%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   2059696k total,   956324k used,  1103372k free,     1232k buffers
Swap: 16787768k total,        0k used, 16787768k free,   102924k cached
---> STATUS: No problems, box is fine, no lag, etc..

3. append line = 4096M
top - 18:37:55 up 1 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.52, 0.19, 0.07
Tasks: 143 total,   1 running, 142 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  2.9%us,  2.2%sy,  0.7%ni, 91.6%id,  2.6%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   3339536k total,   949792k used,  2389744k free,     1232k buffers
Swap: 16787768k total,        0k used, 16787768k free,    99920k cached

$ time ssh p34 uptime
  19:00:16 up 1 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.67, 0.18, 0.06
real    0m0.159s
user    0m0.013s
sys     0m0.003s
---> STATUS: No problems, box is fine, no lag, etc..

4. append line = "" (use all 8GB)

top - 18:52:50 up 9 min,  1 user,  load average: 2.88, 2.43, 1.41
Tasks: 149 total,   3 running, 146 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s): 36.3%us,  2.2%sy, 10.3%ni, 50.8%id,  0.4%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.1%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   8104460k total,  1064416k used,  7040044k free,     3296k buffers
Swap: 16787768k total,        0k used, 16787768k free,   201852k cached

$ ssh p34
ssh: connect to host p34 port 22: Connection refused

Machine takes 5-10 minutes to boot, it acts like a 286 computer, about 8 
minutes later:

$ time ssh p34 uptime  # 5 SECONDS!! 36x slower when using 8GB of RAM
  18:51:39 up 8 min,  1 user,  load average: 2.74, 2.31, 1.30

real    0m5.757s
user    0m0.015s
sys     0m0.004s

The machine is VERY slow and this is on a gigabit network, I/O does not seem 
to be affected but rather, CPU-bound processes.

   PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
  2483 root      25   0 25324 5292 1072 R   96  0.1   4:37.12 mailgraph
  3604 logcheck  30  10  3408 1120  544 R   91  0.0   0:03.55 grep

These normally take seconds but when I use all 8GB of memory, it runs
for a very long time.

Conclusion: For now, I will be using mem=4096M until someone can help me 
understand what is happening here.  Can anyone offer any insight?

I found it interesting in make menuconfig on x86_64 there is no 4GB/64GB
options in the kernel that I remember seeing in 32bit.

The output of cat /proc/cpuinfo is shown below and my .config is attached:

p34:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 15
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU           @ 2.40GHz
stepping        : 7
cpu MHz         : 2397.606
cache size      : 4096 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 4
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 4
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 10
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov 
pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx lm constant_tsc
  pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm
bogomips        : 4797.72
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor       : 1
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 15
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU           @ 2.40GHz
stepping        : 7
cpu MHz         : 2397.606
cache size      : 4096 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 4
core id         : 2
cpu cores       : 4
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 10
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov 
pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx lm constant_tsc
  pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm
bogomips        : 4795.51
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor       : 2
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 15
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU           @ 2.40GHz
stepping        : 7
cpu MHz         : 2397.606
cache size      : 4096 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 4
core id         : 1
cpu cores       : 4
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 10
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov 
pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx lm constant_tsc
  pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm
bogomips        : 4795.40
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor       : 3
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 15
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU           @ 2.40GHz
stepping        : 7
cpu MHz         : 2397.606
cache size      : 4096 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 4
core id         : 3
cpu cores       : 4
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 10
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov 
pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx lm constant_tsc
  pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm
bogomips        : 4795.54
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:


View attachment "config-2.6.21.3" of type "TEXT/PLAIN" (38101 bytes)

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